The bright bedding plants used in some of Cheltenham’s best-known and best-loved parks and gardens could be on the way out.

Cheltenham Borough Council which manages Imperial Square garden and the Long Gardens in the promenade by the war memorial is making plans to change its planting scheme for the areas, and it will see the bright Spring and Summer annual blooms in formal beds go.

How the Long Gardens are currently planted

They will, if the plans go ahead be replaced by perennial plants, which will provide floral colour in Spring and Summer, but also give visual interest in the colder months of the year.

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

Officers putting together the plan say there are a number of reasons why the bedding plants such as pansies could be replaced.

The sort of planting the council wants to introduce to Imperial Square gardens and the Long Gardens

Mark Sheldon, director of resources and projects at the Municipal Offices said: "It takes a lot of resources to produce and maintain the schemes of Spring bedding and then Summer bedding that we have at the moment.

“Replacing those bedding plants would improve our contribution to biodiversity – the perennial plants we would use would be better for bees and other pollinators and other wildlife.

Mr Sheldon said that at the moment plants grown for the beds at Arle Nurseries, which is managed for the borough council by Ubico, are planted in beds in Imperial Square and the Long Gardens twice a year, They are planted in early Spring for colour in April, then those plants are taken up in Summer and the Summer blooms are put in.

Bedding being grown in Arle nursery

He said: “That’s a lot of work, but it’s mainly maintenance. We plant 176,000 plats in total, 87,000 in Spring and 89,000 in summer.

"We also have to replace a lot of topsoil every time those plants are put in or taken away, and they take a lot of watering.”

Mr Sheldon added: “Especially in Spring the bedding plants are susceptible to bad weather and also in Winter the beds are empty and are not of high quality."

If the plans go ahead, beds will be planted with flowering perennial and herbaceous plants, possibly including things like box hedging, aliums, wildflowers like poppies, and foxgloves.

Some of the sort of plants which might be used in the new scheme

Project manager Jane Stovell said: “This is an opportunity to have new design and new planting styles.

“The perennial plants will also stay in place through winter so the beds won’t be empty, there’s be seed heads and height and form throughout the winter. These plants could be quicker to recover from weather damage.

Alium in bloom

“At the moment our gardeners are just spending a lot of time planting the current bedding, and then taking it all out twice a year. The new planting scheme will allow them to develop a greater range of skills”

An alium seedhead

Mr Sheldon added that it might be the case that some beds in Imperial Square Gardens remain with the current scheme to allow festival tents to be pitched and that some beds may be moved or changed. Hanging Baksets and planters in the Promenade and other areas in the centre of town will continue to be filled with annual flowers as they are now.

The local authority’s plans are still in development with a decision possibly to be made by cabinet in November.

Hanging baskets will remain

With next year’s bedding now being grown, if the new plans are approved, it won’t be until 2018 until major changes are seen in the Long Gardens and Imperial Square gardens.

WHO’S AGAINST THE PLANS?

Not everybody is happy at the plans.

More than 80 people have signed a petition on the council’s website to keep what it calls ‘formal seasonal flowers’ in Imperial Gardens and the Promenade Long Gardens and adds: “The planting in these areas gives colour all year round and is an important part of Cheltenham's charm and attractiveness to residents and visitors.”

People enjoy the sun in Imperial Gardens

Cheltenham resident Terry Freeman said: “Everyone I’ve spoken to about this is gobsmacked by the thought of this, I think most people are horrified. Apart from the council beancounters I honestly believe you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in Cheltenham who would support this iconoclasm.”

Annual flowers provide colour but only for a few short months

The Friends of Imperial Square and Gardens are also not in favour. The group said: “One of the main attractions of Cheltenham is that Cheltenham is well known as a ‘floral town’ with the bedding plants in Imperial Gardens giving the vibrant colourful impact which townspeople and visitors alike appreciate and associate with our lovely town.

“It is realised that many families do not have an outside space at home and Imperial Gardens provides pleasure to many who come to enjoy the health and well-being benefits of sitting amongst the flowers.

Pittville Roundabout. Friends of Imperial Square want to keep the old-style planting rather than the sort used here

“It is evident from the recent article in The Echo showing a Trip Advisor rating of 4.5/5 for Imperial Gardens that these wonderful gardens are also of economic benefit to the town by being very attractive to tourists as well as being an important public amenity available to all.”

WHO IS IN FAVOUR?

She said: “I think this is long overdue. The bedding is not really appropriate for a Regency Square - originally the gardens would have been much more naturalistic.

“This sort of bedding began at Osborne House in the late Victorian period and then became popular in the 1950s, but I don’t think it properly reflects the youth and vigour of Cheltenham to have a planting scheme from the 1950s.”

Michele, who trained at Pershore under Chris Beardshaw said: “As a council tax payer I also don’t think tearing up thousands of plants and putting them in a skip twice a year is a good use of my money.

“If sustainable plants are used then in a few years you need to lift and divide them but then you have more plants. And perennial flowering plants can be very colourful indeed.

Perennial plants offer height and form

“The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London has a planting scheme full of sustainable plants and people flock to see that. I don’t think that the bedding plants in Imperial Square does much to bring people to the town at all.”

Jo Worthy Jones, Natural Solutions team leader for Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust said that the new scheme could provide plenty of colour as well as being better for wildlife and biodiversity.

She said: “Annual bedding plants only flower for a few months, and only provide nectar for pollinators for a short–time. Quite a lot of the plants used in annual bedding have been interbred so much that they don’t provide much nectar at all.

“Perennial plants will last longer and you can have a longer flowering season as different plants come into flower, and that will support pollinating insects for longer and support more insects, as they have different shaped tongues and mouths and need different shaped flowers, so there will be more bees and hoverflies and butterflies which will be attracted to the perennial plants.

Bees,hoverflies and butterflies might prefer the new scheme

“And many of them, like lavenders and dahlias do provide a wow factor with really vibrant colours.

“Using perennials flowering plants and herbaceous plants and shrubs also disturbs the soil much less and used much less water, so the new plans will be better for the environment and wildlife all round.”